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May 18, 2004

The Fog of War

The Fog of War is a documentary featuring and starting Robert S. McNamara who served as US Sec of Defense during the Vietnam war. This is an amazing movie on a number of levels. First, the music and footage are breathtaking. The movie goes back and forth between old war and press footage to a single lengthy interview which must have been conducted recently. Clearly, McNamara has changed over the years. It appears that, through the lens of time, he has softened up a bit and regrets much of what was done. However, even after 3 decades, he seems loyal to his secrets and positions. He would not answer a number of questions that would put his previous decisions and the decisions of the administrations he served under, into question.

To me, the most interesting part was the, never stated nor implied, comparison between Vietnam and our current war in Iraq. On one hand. it is very different. Namely a LOT of people were dying in Vietnam on a regular basis, whereas Iraq has seen relatively few casualties. However, the one thing they seem to have in common is our lack of understanding of our enemy. McNamara admits that they thought at the time that Vietnam was an extension of the Cold War. Vietnam saw it as a civil war. Other nations had tried to conquer them before and they saw America as just another one of those nations. Just as today, in Vietnam we believed the South Vietnamese would see us as liberators or defenders at the least, but they too saw us as conquerers. McNamara's lesson is, empathize with the enemy. You have to know the enemy. The Vietnamese would fight to the last man. We would never win.

There's irony in why our administration did not believe the Vietnamese would fight the way they did. I think, deep down, the hawks know that the people fighting FOR them need to be convinced as to WHY they are fighting. That is because the people fighting FOR them really do not often have a reason to fight. Why would the average Joe want to go to Vietnam and fight? What are they fighting for? WWII was different. We had been attacked. In the Vietnam conflict, America was in no danger. Vietnam had no ability to attack us. So, the hawks have it in their best interest to create reasons their people can stand behind. They work hard on words and propaganda to convince you to fight. On some level, the hawks have to see the transparency of what they are doing. They know they hold their own people by a thread. They, more than anyone, see that governments have their own agendas, separate from the will of the people, that they must convince or delude the people into following. Perhaps they believed it was this was in Vietnam (Iraq). That once the government/propaganda machine fell, they could control a people who never had a reason o fight in the first place. The trouble was, they DID have a reason to fight. There was no descent among the Vietnamese. No protests against the war. They were being invaded by colonialists. They would all rather die than submit.

Iraq is a different situation, but perhaps by less than we want to believe. The people in Iraq are motivated by more than money and other American notions of success. From the outside, they see the transparency of the 'democracy' we bring them. We promote democracy even as we put our own players into place and censor their media. The question keeps getting asked. Tim Russert put it best on Meet the Press. 80% of Iraqis want America out. If you were running for office in Iraq, you'd need to run against America to win. But the question is, if an elected Iraqi government wanted us out, would we leave. But I digress, back to the movie.

The other astounding thing I took away from the movie is how evil America can be. Before we dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we had begun firebombing major cities. We killed over 100,000 civilians in one night. Our reasoning was that a civilian today, will fight against us tomorrow. It was also the easiest way to fight a way while minimizing our own causalities. Fly planes really high that drop highly inaccurate bombs. To compensate for their inaccuracy, we'd just drop a ton of them. In a dramatic scene they flash pictures of cities we bombed giving our own governments statistics for how much of the town we destroyed. City after city was depicted with numbers ranging from 50% to 95%. In many instances, these cities were the size of LA, New York, etc...

America has a short memory. Perhaps because we have a short history. Other nations have much longer memories and much deeper traditions. The violence and ruthlessness we exhibited during WWII was forgotten by Americans long before the rest of the world did. We have to remember that. There are Japanese and Vietnamese still alive that remember us killing millions and millions of innocent people. In a rare candid moment, McNamara recalls knowing, even back than, that if they lost the way in Japan or Vietnam, their actions would be seen as criminal. But if they had won, they would be heros. He questions why there is a difference in moral standard for the winners or losers.

I saw Troy a couple nights ago. It was a good movie, very enjoyable. As Greece masses their entire army to attack Troy, the grecian leaders knew they would not be turning back without destroying Troy. Why? Because you don't put that large an army together and sail them all across the sea to negotiate. War has not changed much in principal in the last 10,000 years. In many ways I believe our nation must engage in military conflict, if for no other reason, than we have such a large military. It would be an awful waste of time, people and money, if all they did was peaceful endeavors. This may seem cynical, but wars have been fought for less. This is the way of war. We have the largest military in the world in terms of capability. There are those that justify continual conflicts to justify keeping and even enlarging our military with the rational that there WILL be another large conflict and we will need to be ready. If we let our military dwindle with lack of need, we will make ourselves vulnerable. This is obviously twisted logic.

When will things change? When will people stop seeing others as The Enemy just because they are different. I think it was the hope of the world at one point, that America would be a different kind of country. That we would behave more civilized and promote peace and fairness by example. Unfortunately, we have lost any credibility in that regard. It has become obvious to the world America's motives are not pure. When will it end?

Posted by wonko at May 18, 2004 11:49 AM

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Comments

Posted by: pdhman at May 18, 2004 01:15 PM

Posted by: Wonko at May 18, 2004 04:39 PM

Posted by: pdhman at May 19, 2004 05:31 AM

Posted by: kasei at May 21, 2004 10:32 AM

Posted by: Markus at May 24, 2004 03:01 PM

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